Before the war started, American pop culture was attempting to break free of the strains of the Great Depression. Judy Garland’s song “Over the Rainbow” was one of the most popular hits of 1939. Films such as Gone With the Wind and The Grapes of Wrath were amazing audiences around the country. While Europe began to be torn apart by the beginnings of World War II, America was enjoying a relatively easy time of peace. In fact, America shared a laugh or two over the strange German leader who was slowly sweeping Europe. Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator featured a farcical Adolf Hitler, a character called Adenoid Hynkel. Disney began putting out propaganda cartoons, including a version of “Sleeping Beauty” that featured Beauty as a blonde, fat, female Viking (Germany) and a knight in shining armor who snorts like a pig and looks remarkably like Hitler.
The attack on Pearl Harbor changed that easygoing view of the events happening in Europe. Soon, (1941 to be exact) America found itself in the midst of war. Yet wartime culture, though slowly changing from pop culture of the ‘30s, still did not seem to have the sad, serious tones one might expect of a country going to war. The newly arrived mass medium of radio played a large part in wartime pop culture. The Andrews Sisters brought liveliness to wartime America with their army-feel hit, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”
Spike Jones released his song, “Der Feurher’s Face” that poked fun at the idea of a “master race”.
Other artists chose a more somber tone. Vera Lynn’s “When The Lights Go On Again” reveals the longings of Americans on the home front to see peacetime again. Perhaps the most popular film to come out of World War II also holds a somber note, though the main focus of Casablanca is not necessarily on the war itself. World War II America also saw the release of the first Captain America comic books about the American hero who (in one issue quite literally) punches Hitler in the face. However, aside from the rations that changed everything from eating habits to women’s fashions trends (no more nylons, ladies) and the large amounts of war propaganda put out, the war still did not have an immense impact on popular culture. This is probably because of the conflicting views Americans had about the war.
Even once the war was over, the cultural impact of World War
II was not immediately evident. The most popular movies of 1948 and 1949 were Bicycle Thieves and The Third Man, neither of which had anything to do with the events
of the recent war. Alan Paton’s Cry, the
Beloved Country was published in 1948. It also had nothing to do with what
had happened in the previous years of the war. In 1949, Rita Hayworth was
gracing the covers of magazines, not American soldiers. LIFE Magazine did
publish Winston Churchill’s war memoirs (note that Winston Churchill is NOT an
American); however, as more time went by and America learned more about the war
(particularly of the Holocaust), World War II began to appear increasingly
frequently in everyday popular culture.
Modern day culture now contains a bizarre blend of somber
remembrance and coarse humor centered around the events of World War II. With
the development of television, numerous documentaries and mini-series have been
made about World War II (the most famous of these probably being Band of Brothers). Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, The Boy in
the Striped Pyjamas, and countless other movies continue to remind
audiences of the gruesome horrors of wartime and the Holocaust.
Books like The Diary of Anne Frank and Sophie’s Choice provide the perspective
of Jews that Americans could not immediately understand. Thousands of
photographs, paintings, drawings, etc. have provided vivid images of a raging
war in Europe. In less profound territory, the aftermath of war provided
fashion designers with new inspiration and the creation of the “bomber jacket”,
“military coat” and other war-related fashion pieces began.
But, World War II (and Hitler and the Holocaust in
particular) has also become the source for countless parodies, farces, and
jokes. Mel Brook’s musical The Producers
features a song called “Springtime for Hitler” that turns Germany’s actions
into chorus-girl glamour that is worlds away from the reality of the war. The
song is deliberately meant by the characters in the play to offend their
“audience”, but the crowd winds up loving it. The Producers was so popular that not only was the film turned into
a Broadway musical, it was remade again in 2005.
Perhaps most recently, the Internet sensation of the “meme”
has begun to include references to Hitler, Nazism, and World War II.
Countless other websites exist devoting themselves to
parodying the events of World War II. There is even one solely about cats…that
look like Hitler.
Even American language has changed because of the war. Now
we have terms such as “grammar Nazi” (for sticklers of English grammar) and “Hitler
stache” (for small mustaches). We even sometimes call people “Hitler” or
“Mussolini” when we think they are being mean or controlling.
World War II has had a profound effect on American social
history, particularly in the realm of popular culture. Interestingly enough,
most of what Americans today remember of the war are events that happened in
Europe and not on the home front. Pearl Harbor is certainly still featured in
books, films, remembrance days, etc., but is has not seeped into everyday
culture the way Nazism, Hitler, and the Holocaust have. The war has been
brutally and realistically portrayed, glamorized, laughed at and more. Yet,
regardless of how it is looked at, the fact remains that World War II is
constantly being remembered in American culture today. Its infamy has lasted
longer than almost any other event in American history.
Citations:
www.imdb.com
http://www.learcenter.org/pdf/WWBlakley.pdf
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_07.html
http://www.nps.gov/nhl/themes/homefrontstudy.pdf
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Video taken from: YouTube (www.youtube.com)
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